Supporters Raise More Than $60,000 For Family Of Cleveland Shooting Victim

Support is pouring in for the family of Robert Godwin, the 74-year-old victim gunned down in Cleveland on a video posted to Facebook on Sunday.

Arizona State University student Wesley Davis, who has no connection to Godwin’s family, launched a GoFundMe to help in their time of grief. Davis is working directly with the fundraising platform to ensure the family receives the donations, according to KPNX.

Davis set a goal of $20,000. Since the page was created Sunday, about 2,500 people have donated more than $60,000. All of the funds are going to Godwin’s family.

GoFundMe

“I cannot imagine the pain his family is going through right now. I am just a kid from Arizona who unfortunately saw this video on Facebook and wanted to help,” he wrote on the page. “I know this won’t bring their loved one back but it’s the least we can do. I hope they find peace.”

Godwin was walking home from an Easter meal with his family when Steve Stephens fatally shot him in a random act of violence, which he recorded and posted to Facebook. Stephens shared on the platform that he would “keep killing until they catch me,” before his page was taken down.

Stephens was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday after a nearly 48-hour manhunt.

Earlier that day, Godwin’s son Robby Miller told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he didn’t want Stephens to die, but “brought to justice.”

Miller and other family members of Godwin said that their Christianity gives them the strength to forgive Stephens. They said forgiveness is something that Godwin, who was a father of 10 and grandfather of 14, taught them.

“My dad would ... want this from us. And he would say, ‘Tonya, forgive him’ because they know not what they do,” Godwin’s daughter Tonya Godwin-Baines said.

The family learned of Stephen’s death as they were planning Godwin’s funeral arrangements, CNN reported.